A friend back home told me not to worry about driving, as clearly people did it just fine, and as they weren't all super-geniuses, I shouldn't feel like it was anything I couldn't do. That thought crossed my mind as I made my way to the car.
Andrew, the very nice shuttle driver that took me to the gym earlier, had shown me a side street / loop that I could drive around to get my bearings before leaving the airport. It's kind of like driving the loop around SJC, but with less people. He also gave me some tips about roundabouts and getting comfortable in the car...always yield to the right! We had struck up a conversation about San Francisco as he's going to visit there in October. I told him about home, he told me about Dublin. He was pretty impressed I'd be out here by myself for 5 months, but assured me I'd make plenty of friends. That was very nice of him.
I jumped in the car and got myself situated, adjusted the mirrors, found the turn signals, the hazard lights, all that good stuff. The GPS was one of those crappy portable ones, but it would do, and I was happy to have direction. I turned that on and spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to enter a location without an exact address. Eventually i asked it to take me to the center of Malahide, which it could handle. "Drive to route" the feminine English voice stated. Oh boy, here we go! I went to put the car in drive....with the wrong hand, as I was on the right side of the car and needed to use my left for center console and shift lever purposes. Not a problem, I'd figure it out. I drove up to the parking gate to insert my card, and just reiterated to myself, "driver to the center of the road, driver to the center of the road". Once I got out of the parking lot, I turned left (thank god) into the loop and started driving.The next 30 minutes were a lesson in frustrated hilarity. The first roundabout I came up to scared the hell outta me..cars everywhere, circling, yielding, some not yielding. However, the GPS told me to take the second left, which i knew meant i had to be in the outside lane, and as i got up to the line, I looked right, waited for an opening, and dove in to the turnabout, going around quickly and then exiting on the second left. I did it! Not so bad after all. The road I was traveling on had three more roundabouts I would have to navigate before getting out onto the country roads. Each was a tiny bit easier, though I noticed I was talking aloud, encouraging myself a LOT. "Perfect, nice and slow, just stay to the left, watch for oncoming traffic,...WHOOPS, that light was a little red, sorry!"
Once I made my way to the country roads I was happy to be out of the traffic, but they presented their own challenges. The lanes are only slightly bigger than the cars themselves, so you find yourself with less than a foot of room on either side of the car. My Challenger back home would take up literally 3/4 of the road. Thankfully I was in a compact! Every time a car would come up facing me, I'd grip the steering wheel just a bit until they passed. I wonder how many side-view mirrors people went through here?Eventually country roads brought me to the middle of Malahide, which is a small town, but a very crowded one. There were people everywhere, the streets were still small, and now there was traffic! I came up to an intersection and the GPS told me to turn right. I froze... do you know how hard it is to figure out turning right for the first time here? To make matters worse, there was no light, just a yield, and everyone seemed to be driving wherever they felt like it. Coward that i am, i skipped that right hand turn and just went straight. The GPS was annoyed, "Recalculating...Recalculating." That's right, recalculate me to a series of left hand turns please! I said frustrated. It wasn't long, however, before i came up to another, similar corner, and again it commanded I turn right. I put on my blinker, drove out into the middle of the intersection, waited for oncoming traffic to stop, and made the turn. Immediate panic hit me..."Am I on the right side of the road..? I mean the left side, yes, I'm on the left, but why are the cars facing the wrong way??? Is this a one way street?!?!" Turns out, it was not a one-way street and I was fine, but people park their cars every which way here, so you can't use them as an indication as to whether you're on the right side or not. Crisis averted, and a couple minutes later I parked along the coast, got out, and gulped in the sea breeze until I was calm, cool, and collected.
Malahide is a beautiful coastal town, much like Carmel or Monterey. There are paths along the sea cliffs where people walk, rollerblade, and jog. Down on the beach kids were playing in the water, and people were throwing balls for dogs willing to jump into the freezing cold ocean. The beautiful views reminded me of home, and as the warm sunshine beat down on my face...i realised I hadn't planned on needing sun tan lotion! :D
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